Music Theory Lesson1: How Music Can Help in Battle
by HarekSanders
Summary: Music is a powerful thing, but the power of a friendship is potentially more powerful. When new friends, Mamodo and human alike, enter Blake's life, he is taught just how powerful these two things are.
1. Da Beginning

Okay, this is my first ever fic, so cut me some slack if it ain't that good. FYI, this is a "Zatch Bell" fanfic that involves a mamodo and some characters of my own creation. I guess you fanfic freaks call that OC for "Original Character" or something; I could be totally off, but what the hell. Oh, and yes, I know that there is already another Music Mamodo, mine is different though, trust me. And also, for all you Zatch fans, please excuse any inaccuracies I'm new to the show as well as Fanfic-ing. Anywhat, hope it's good, here's how it starts out

((I guess for legal purposes I need to state that I do not own any part "Zatch Bell" or "Konjiki no Gash" shrug it's something that I see often around the site. Enjoy! D))

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Let's start from the beginning, doesn't that sound like a good place to start? God, I sound like whatsherface from the Sound of Music. Anyways, my name is Blake Kinlion, like, "Kin-lee-un." Yep, that's me, born and raised in the quiet deciduous suburbs and can't remember ever growing up anywhere else. I am tall-ish, 5'10", I amextremely skinny, and I have long curly hair that I tie back in a ponytail. I am currently 17, finishing up my last year in high school, a little earlier than I will be planning, but we'll get into that later. I'm a simple child planning to go into a simple job, music. I played piano, and some other stuff, but mainly piano. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my skill, but I know I didn't want to go off and like, become famous or crap like that. That stuff is too exciting for me. Maybe I'd grow up to be an unaffiliated traveling piano player, playing where needs playing. But that was all far off in the future, I still had college to go through and all that jazz. Studying, I hate this, Music Theory, I'm groaning right now as I write this. But I'm a now person, and what I mean by that is, I pay attention to the present, the "here and now" as some people like to call it. And this story I'm about to tell you is a heckuva lot more recent than what hasn't happened yet. If that makes any sense.

Ok, so there's my background, normal musician kid, 17 years old, Sound of Music, got it? Good. So let's continue with why I wasn't able to finish High School sorta. But just one more thing before that, I must be a wiz at making up words because that little red-underliney thing keeps popping up everywhere on Microsoft Word. Ok, now on to the story. So it happened something like this. I was in the woods, with a clarinet actually, I'm not very good at it, but I liked to fool around with it. So I was merrily playing along right? Just like nothing's up. I was trying to figure out Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" actually, but I'm not the greatest, and I will never figure out how to do that slide thing…you have no idea what I'm talking about do you, s'okay, just go along with it. As I annoyingly repeated a certain 4 notes so as to get it just right, I noticed something on the ground, well, more like placed neatly against a tree trunk. It was this book, and it was this Ivory White color, and normally I wouldn't go picking up books that I found outside in the woods, but this one wasn't as dilapidated or dirty as any of the other books I had found. And it was white, and let's face it, white isn't the hardest thing to get dirty, so it had to be clean. So I picked it up.

But I didn't pick it up just 'cos it was white and clean. It had some funky writing on it, and some designs and all that jazz. My eyes drifted around the cover, the writing on it was nothing I could interpret. I glanced back at the spot that I found the hardback. I looked around to see where the book may have come from. About three trees away, I saw a boy. Well, "boy" may not be the right word. I actually, didn't really have a word for what he could have been, I do now, but we'll get to that later. He was very different, and not…boy-looking, though he was. Arg, this is hard to explain, how about this? The kid looked something like a cross between a "Punk Rocker" and a ninja. Not working for you? Alright let's get into more detail. Well, the main feature that stood out about this kid was definitely the 1 and a half foot hot pink Bihawkhe was sporting ((Like a Mohawk but…two)). His two plumes of hair were sticking out of this ratty old hat that was placed on his overly-large head. His face was covered with like, a ninja-mask, so only his eyes showed. What're those things called? Balaclavas? Anyway, he also had like a ninja shirt on, one of those things that look like you just wrap a long cloth around yourself really tightly, and then tie something around your waist to hold it together. In this case, a large checkerboard-print belt was holding the dressing on. He wore pants that I can only describe as being "Man-Capris" and had on some regular-seeming sneakers. There's the description, I'm not repeating it.

I inferred that the white book I was holding was his, considering there was no one else around. Hesitantly, I knelt down and shook his shoulder. "Hey, hey kid, is this yours?" I asked simply. The kid opened his eyes and looked up into mine. His eyes were, for lack of a better term, strange. They seemed larger than they should be, and on top of that, were a bright cerulean that seemed slightly unnatural. He looked up at me with neither surprise nor confusion, but rather, as calm as if I were a friend that had woken him. "Is this your book?" I repeated, holding out and pointing to the ivory book. He reached out and touched the cover without a word. I had wrongly expected him to grab the book from me, because he didn't, but I could tell that he recognized it. "Uh," I said stupidly, "Do you want it?" He looked back up at me and said in a voice that was raspy and deep, but in a little kid sort of way, "No, you can have it." That caught me off guard. "Well, I can't read it, so it's of no use to me." I said. "Well neither can I." Was the response I received. I sat there, holding out the book not saying anything, but simply staring into the strangely captivating cyan/cerulean eyes. After about a minute, I fell backwards onto my butt and sat into a cross-legged position. With nothing else coming to mind, I opened the book to its first page. Couldn't understand a thing. And then the next page. Still, nothing. And no sooner than I had flipped to the next leaf of paper did it start ((ready for this?)) to glow! Well, not the whole page, but some of the strange text on the page. I looked at it astonished, and then looked at the kid, who merely stared at it with unmoving features ((granted I couldn't really see the features due to his Balaclava or whatever)). I gazed at the glowing symbols and noticed something astounding. I could read what it said! I could actually _read_ the writing I had no clue even what language it was in moments before! I didn't know how I could do it, and I'm still not very sure. But I could read it. Pointing out what was obvious to me, the kid said, "You can read it now, can't you?" I said yes. "We have a connection now." was what I heard next, which meant absolutely nothing to me. I asked what he meant by "connection." He said he didn't know, he said he knew but three things right now. One: His name was Senjei Sichi ((Sahn-jay See-chee)). This was a start, now I didn't have to call him "kid" anymore. Two: He is different. And that was obvious. Three: There was a connection between him, the book, and a human. I extrapolated that I was said human. Senjei got up, walked away from me to face a tree, and told me to read the book. There was only one word really, even though there were many figures shining the blinding white glow that shone upon my confused countenance. Sounding out the word to the best of my abilities, I pronounced, "Cresca." ((Kreh-shah)) Almost instantly, two octaves of piano keys appeared in front of Senjei. Staring at the materialization, I observed while the punker ninja played an Eb Minor power chord and saw the tree in front of the floating instrument bend backwards as if by very strong wind until it bent to near-horizontal level and stayed there. I don't remember anything past that point because I think I fainted.


	2. New Faces and Information

Freaking Disclaimer: I do not own any theme/characters from Zatch Bell

What I do own/did create: Blake, Senjei, Alicia, and Keigo

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- I woke up a half an hour later propped up against a tree. My first thought was the cliché, _It all must've been a dream_, and of course upon further analysis ((the fact I was still holding the book, and that Senjei was asleep against the tree across from me)) it wasn't. Typical cliché ((groan)). Anyways, I stood up, instinctively brushing off my butt of any dirt or twigs or whatnot. Pointlessly, I leafed through the book a bit. Pointless considering all I could read was "Cresca" and I still didn't know what _really_ happened when I did.

- I shut the book and took a minute to decipher what my next move would be. _Well,_ I thought, _I'm here in the woods with a punk-rock ninja kid who is also a musician, who can use his music skills to do crazy stuff… _I glanced down at the book _…depending on what I read here from the book, which is currently only one thing._ I took a mental deep breath, since that's what I would have done if I had been talking aloud, stupid I know, but that's me. _So now there are two questions: What, in fact, **is** Senjei…_ I had concluded by this point that he was not human _…and why is he here?_ Ok, two questions without answers and not a clue as to where to start from to find the answers. I tapped my index finger on the old White cover of the strange book I had in thought. I can be stupid sometimes can't I? "The book." I thought out loud and smacked my head with it. These answers just _had_ to be in the book, the problem was, I couldn't read it.

- My talking and banging had woken Senjei, who got up and stood close to my leg, staring out into nothing ((wow, light sleeper)). He, next to me, made me feel something; it wasn't as much as a physical feeling more than it was a…different feeling. The sensation was like recognizing someone you haven't seen for a while, except I wasn't looking at him, and I just met him. It's something you have to experience yourself to understand. Anyways, that wasn't really on my mind. What I was thinking about was the thaumaturgy that had happened just moments ago. The tree that appeared to have been hit by a miniature hurricane had failed to, and probably won't ever again, erect into its original state. I pictured the musical magic that happened moments ago and wondered yet again about the two questions that I have stated above. I placed the book in front of Senjei. "You can't read this can you?" The pink-haired Senjei shook his head. "Do you know anything about what you are? And why you're here?"

- The big blue eyes stared back at me, hinting no sign of any emotion whatsoever as he said, "I've been trying to remember things like that since you had me cast that spell. All I can remember is that I should be fighting. I don't know why that is, but it's what I'm supposed to do." I pondered a second and realized that it made sense. His power did seem offensive, so I could imagine him being a fighter. But still the question lingered, "Why was he here?"

- Well, I wasn't going to figure out the answer in the next 15 minutes just standing here in the woods. Procrastination was definitely the best bet in this situation. Putting off the problem for a later time, I grabbed my clarinet and said to Senjei. "Come on, since you're my new partner, and you don't seem to have a home, you can stay at my house." I beckoned the Bihawked kid to follow me, he obliged. Ten minutes later, we approached the front steps of my house. It hadn't occurred to me until this time that I would have to explain Senjei to the parents. I debated in my mind whether it was better to tell the truth, or to land a big lie. Opting that it would quite a chore to think up an untrue story behind Senjei, I was going to tell the truth. Oh boy, this one will be good.

- I pushed the door open quietly, trying to buy some time for thinking up how I was going to say this. I packed up my clarinet and put it back in the closet, and after letting Senjei in, closed the door to find my Mother standing behind it. I yelped in surprise at the sight of her cross face just beyond the wooden structure. "Oh, hi Mom." I said with a shaking voice.

- I was scolded with a, "Where have you been? I was worried sick."

- _For god's sake, I'm 17; I can't go out without Mom having to worry?_ I thought. Hesitantly, I replied, "Oh, sorry Mom, I got caught up in a thing with a friend I met up with along the way." Now _that _was a lie.

- She didn't care though, "I _told_ you to be home by supper, and I had to throw it away because it got cold!" She fumed. "And who's this you've got here? Why are you bringing strange kids in the house?"

- I felt kind of strange because she was talking as if Senjei wasn't right there in front of her, which he was, but I could tell he didn't care. I sighed; I didn't want to get in to that so fast and abruptly. "Mom, come and sit down and I'll tell you." I beckoned her into the kitchen and Senjei as well. Mom and I sat at the counter in stools as I told her everything about the woods as Senjei looked around the house from the huge rocking chair in the corner which made him look even smaller than he was already, with exception of his hair of course.

- "So you see," I concluded, "I need to find out what Senjei is really all about, cuz no one wants a reckless, ninja-musician who can blow things into oblivion running amuck." I tried to say with a straight face. "Which means," here was the big one, "I'll have to skip the rest of the school year." That was a mistake.

- For the next 15 minutes, I was yelled at and lectured about how important my education was for me and all that crap mothers lecture about when you tell them you want to skip school. For another 15 minutes after that, I was having a rough time arguing and convincing her that I was the best Pianist in the school's history and that I could probably get into any college without ever even having gone to High School.

- In the end, she got mad at me and stormed off saying, "Whatever, I don't care, do whatever the hell you want with your life. Since you've proven to me that what your Mother thinks doesn't matter to you, I don't care. To hell with it." She ran off to her room. I knew she'd get over it eventually, and she would have to, because I was going no matter what she said.

- You know, I don't know why, but at this point, I felt like this was going to be some big quest that would take me to far away places. For all I knew, the answers to my questions could be in my front yard. I checked to see if my anticipations were correct. They weren't. All there was in my front yard was…grass…and other front-yardly things. But that's not important. Senjei was still sitting in the big rocking chair in the corner. Patient little bugger he was. My thoughts about my "mission" I felt were semi-true. I ruled out the idea that I'd have to travel to the four corners of the earth and figured I could stay generally close to home, maybe I'd have to go a few towns over, or maybe a region or two, but nothing too far. But I did know that this would take up my school time. I didn't know why I felt this, but I knew that school would definitely have to go if I wanted to find out about Senjei.

- Half an hour later, I've packed my backpack with some clothes, my clarinet, all the money I could find to bring with me, and a bag of beef jerky. I mean, come on, its beef jerky man! And I have left the house and was on my way to…um…wherever it was I was going. I wasn't too sure really. I cursed myself for being so spontaneous, never planning anything. After thinking a while, I had decided to go to the Library; maybe there were answers there to what language this book was in. So that's just where I had gone to. Some strange things happened in the next hour, so I'll pick up with me already there.

- I had asked the librarian if she recognized the language, she said no but told me to check the "World Books" section of the Library, so I had. I was now sitting at a desk with many books I had pulled from the shelves that looked promising in front of me. So far, none of them had helped; I couldn't find anything that resembled the book or the writing in any of them. Senjei, like his usual self, was just sitting there not helping, but I didn't care too much, by this time I was practically done anyways, I knew I wasn't going to find any information on the abnormal book. I closed several books and stacked them on top of each other ready to put them away, when someone addressed me.

- "Doin' some research or somethin'?" said a girl's voice. I looked up to see an attractive young woman who seemed to be 18 or 19-ish with blonde hair, very cute freckles, an embarrassingly tight shirt, carrying a messenger bag and a cowboy-er-girl hat on.

- "Wha-? Oh yeah, just some research." I said, and glanced over to Senjei who looked up at me. I was just about to come up with a lie to what I was "researching" but whoever the girl was cut me off.

- "S'got anythin' to do with that white book you got there?" She pointed to Senjei's book.

- Well _that_ caught me off guard. I stuttered, "I- uh…uh, I." Then without even thinking I blurted, "How did you know that?"

- She smiled and said, "We'll get to that soon enough. Righ' now I'm goin' to the diner, you wanna come with? It'll be worth yer while, I can guarantee that." She winked and giggled. I wasn't sure how to take that, but dumbstruck, all I did was nod. Much to the later librarian's dismay, I grabbed my book, leaving the others where they were and called for Senjei to follow. The girl also called for someone to follow us, a kid named Keigo. The Keigo kid also had a cowboy hat on and was wearing jeans and a plaid shirt. Together, we exited the Library.

- Outside, I asked her how she knew about my book, and she replied, "Patience, hun, patience. You don't want to rush things that fast now do you?" She gave me a sweet simper.

- It was introduction time as we walked to the diner that was down quite a few blocks. "My name is Alicia Abbot, and this here is Keigo." Keigo smiled up at me. I quietly gasped; there was something about Keigo that I recognized, sort of. Something that just seemed familiar, it was like having a déjà vu feeling. He turned away and looked forward, anticipating the diner.

- It took me a while to respond because I was deciphering the connection between Keigo and whatever it was seemed familiar. Alicia coughed and I said, "Oh, sorry, I'm Blake, Blake Kinlion, and this is Senjei." Senjei made no sign of salutations, he merely kept walking. "So, again, how do you know about my book? Do you know what it's for?" I queried.

- Alicia laughed, "You're a feisty one, aren't you, Blake?" She paused to laugh again, "You will know soon enough, look, here's the diner."

- The four of us entered the diner and obliged to the sign that read, _"Please seat yourself."_ Almost instantly a waitress came over, "What can I get ya'll today?" She asked ((Man, what's up with the southerners?)).

- I took the initiative and ordered my meal first, "Um, the Grilled Chicken Hamburger please? No tomatoes." I looked over at Senjei who said simply, not looking up, "A Lemon." The waitress and I exchanged glances and she wrote it down on her pad.

- "I'll have the same Grilled Chicken Hamburger, if ya please." Keigo looked up and told the waitress, "Can I get a Waffle with Vanilla Ice Cream on it?" The waitress nodded and swept off to get our orders.

- Impatiently, I shot a look at Alicia which said _"Now!"_ she giggled again and gave in. "Fine already, so here's the deal. Senjei, there, is what's called a Mamodo." Her accent was cute and made the word sound like Mah-mow-doe, but I wasn't paying attention to that, I was too busy trying to decipher the word rather than how she said it. Before I had time to say "A what?" She chimed in saying, "A Mamodo is a being from a different world, the Mamodo World." Well, that made sense…sorta. "And as you may or may not have already found out, they have special powers." She explained to me the book, the battle, and the King and all that stuff we've all heard before. If you haven't heard it before, please consult "Zatch Bell!" _Episode 4: The Great Mamodo Battle_.

- So, to summarize it, I said, "So, a hundred of these guys are running around with human partners battling haplessly to gain the throne for the Mamodo King?"

- She smiled and nodded. "Yup, in a nutshell." We had received our food halfway through Alicia's story, and I was having trouble keeping the contents of my Hamburger in between the buns as I listened. Senjei looked like a reclusive punk weirdo who no one talked to as he ate lemons in the corner by himself. He showed no sign of reaction to the sour acids in the lemon, which made him look tough, the effect added by the Balaclava and his bright blue eyes which seemed to see everything around him even though he was staring in one direction.

- I looked over to Keigo, who was happily relishing the savory flavor of his Vanilla Ice Cream, which had, to his delight, come with a couple strawberries with it. Then it hit me; I realized why Keigo looked so familiar. His eyes had the same visage as Senjei's, the same huge deepness only substituted with a bright orange instead of a neon cyan to compliment his jeans.

- Now I got it, Keigo was also a Mamodo; Alicia had failed to recount this. Inferring that Alicia figured out that I figured out what was going on, I asked her, kinda stupidly, "What color's you're book." I scrunched my face at my own stupidity.

- Alicia laughed, she had noticed my reaction to myself ((durn it)) but she replied bubbly, "Pumpkin Orange." Ever notice how some girls can label colors to the very last hue? Crazy girls.

- "So," I said, "Does this mean that you're going to battle me now, take advantage of my inexperience, defeat my Mamodo so that Keigo can become King?" I said this with an expression that showed both a smirk and a frown, I'm not sure how I did this, and I'll never be able to do it again.

- Chuckling, she said, "Naw, I'm not that mean, neither do I wanna fight you, you seem too…nice for me to do that."

- My face got hot when she said this. She giggled again to show that she noticed my blush ((durn it again)). "So…what? Are we friends then? Partners? Are we a team or something?"

- She smiled her southern simper and said, "Or somethin'."

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**Reviews would be oh so wonderful, I hope you all like my story **


	3. Disaster!

Yay, so far one review! -- Thank you _rahkshi500_ for taking the time to read and review it. Chapter Three's comin' at ya'll ((I'm really getting into this southern thing for some reason O-o shrugs))

((Post-writing)) – Erg, not the greatest chapter, last one was better, but this one's still good. There's a cool twist ;) Hope ya like! ((Reviews are wonderful))

Da Disclaimer – I disclaim any and all characters/themes from "Zatch Bell!" that I may or may not use in my Fanfiction. All that I own are my Original Characters, ((Blake, Senjei, Alicia, Keigo, and there are bound to be more, most of my characters will be made up just so ya know))

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- The next few days were quite uneventful. Aside from Alicia and I getting to know each other better, and the few times we sparred for fun ((making sure our books were distanced from the fighting)), nothing much happened. I avoided my house as well as I could ((which was pretty well)) so I wouldn't have to face Mom, who was most definitely worried sick about me, or Dad, who Mom definitely would have told that I left. Alicia graciously invited me to stay at her brother's house across town, which was on the edge of the suburbs and downtown, so it was kinda different to me, but all was good. I found it amusing that Alicia's brother, Craig, had no idea about the whole Mamodo thing, and thought that the abnormal adolescents that followed us were merely strange kids we had to baby-sit.

- Speaking of Senjei and Keigo, I learned a little more about them in the past few days. Number one, Keigo was considered by Alicia, since all Mamodos have their "types" if you will, the "Rope Mamodo." Fittingly so ((cowboy hat and all that)), Keigo was adroit in the areas of magical lassoing. It was a strange power but both Keigo and Alicia seemed to enjoy it oh so very much. It probably brought them back to their roots or whatever you want to say. Number two, I learned that eventually Senjei would be able to perform other spells aside from "Cresca"; well that was a relief now wasn't it? Sorta. Well, though I couldn't tell what the next spells would be until I got that strong, the only glimpse of what was to come came from Alicia and Keigo, who had advanced into the second level of spells. The incantations our Cowboy friends are able to perform up to this point include "Chitire" ((Shet-air)), which shot a nasty whip of rope at the opponent, and "Layuir" ((Lah-year)), which, appropriately to Keigo's theme, immobilizes the target with a lasso of rope. That last one always got Senjei pretty good. As for my progress so far, Senjei and I have been able to blow both Keigo and his rope away with our music blast. I also found out that the Ivory Book's first spell is not limited to piano only, but that it can conjure any instrument and demonstrate the same effect. On a couple occasions, some strange things happened with this spell. The coolest of them: Senjei emitted a power chord from his outstretched palm, the sound produced sounding somewhere between a heavy-metal band and a full orchestra. The weirdest of them: I actually materialized three piano keys in front of me. When I touched them and played the triad, I felt an immense surge of power course through my nerves. Wow, that sounded so shmalty. Anywho, lets get back to the present, because that's what I like better.

- It has now been a week since I first picked up the Ivory book in the woods, and I have so far completed the first part of my "quest" if you will. This part I have finished was the two questions I asked earlier. With help from lovely Alicia…blush I mean…with help from Alicia, I now know what Senjei is and why he has come to Earth. Now the next part of my quest…erm…I'm not to sure what that is, Alicia will have to help me with that one too. I'll probably end up following her until I finally figure out what I'm doing. Hopefully that'll take longer than I think it may take, but I guess I could just follow her anyways even after I figure out what I'm doing. Why am I talking about Alicia so much? Anyways…

- After having slept in till 11am ((durn Alicia, I told her to wake me up early)), I decided that I should take some time off alone. I hadn't really been alone since that day in the woods really, and it was starting to get emotionally frustrating. Staying with someone non-stop for a week can do that to you. So I took some well-deserved alone time. I walked into the city, eating out of a bag of freshly bought beef jerky, and simply walked around, taking in my surroundings. I stopped by a magazine stand, from which I plucked an interesting looking newspaper which displayed the words "Random Explosion Baffles Many." Paying the man running the stand, I stuck it under my arm and kept on strolling along.

- I walked into the house of my friends silently, acting as though I never left. I don't know why, it was just amusing. I sat down at the breakfast counter ((granted, it was noon by now, but I still hadn't eaten)) and folded out the paper while sipping my _MetroMint Peppermint Water_ ((greatest stuff ever, no lie)). I read the front page, glancing again at the headline that caught my attention. Scanning through the headlining article, I was informed that a strange explosion was heard and, in some eyewitness cases, seen not too far from the suburban homes of the town. My stomach dropped as I read on. There were no injuries reported, _Phew, Mom and Dad are Ok,_ I thought, but reports state that a teenager and a child emerged from the area the blast apparently happened. My mind pictured this and I had no trouble at all deducting what had actually happened. Some witnesses said that an adult had walked out of the wreckage 10 minutes before the authorities arrived. The three individuals had yet to be recognized but investigations are taking place.

- I thought about it and then reread the passage once more. It made sense to me, maybe it would to Alicia. "Alicia!" I shouted. My throat became unusually dry just then. My wonderful friend's hair, which was usually tied back like mine, was let down, showing the amazing streaks of straight golden hair that whipped behind her. She caught herself on the doorway when she flew through, leaning forwards on her toes and holding her weight with her frail, sun kissed arms. "What's up?" She said intriguingly. I subconsciously gulped and beckoned her over to read the article I had just absorbed. After a couple minutes, she said, "Yeah, definitely." She knew why I called her to read it.

- "You think?" I asked, "I mean, it's the only logical explanation, isn't it?" She nodded, biting her lip in thought.

- "Think we should go down an' check it out?" She asked, her Southern accent bouncing around the room's acoustics.

- I chuckled, "I hope that was rhetorical." I replied. Snatching my book, I pursued Alicia and Keigo out the door, only to be succeeded by Senjei, of course.

- Craig was gracious to give us a ride to the suburban area, from where we set our tracks toward the explosion site, though we kinda didn't know where that was. It took a fair bit of questioning before we found the correct location, but eventually, we found ourselves heading for a road that was crowded with News and Police cars. Beyond them were throngs of people craning their necks trying to catch a glimpse of the scene before them. Naturally, the cops had set up a line of barriers and caution tape, which, aided by the crowd, obstructed our vision of the unexpected ground zero. I poked my partner and pointed to a bush on the side of the road that had open view to the scenario. We were able to stealthily get around the crowd and barriers to sneak behind the shrub from which we watched the situation.

- We could see, amongst the authorities running around franticly, that a large portion of the middle of the road was no longer there. It was replaced by a rather large hole which was presumably created by the "explosion."

- We heard some voices; they were coming from a man with an overcoat on and holding a pad and a pen and a person he was interrogating. Once again, typical. Over the noises, it was hard to understand what they were saying, but we caught this much. Coat-man asked the witness, "Are you sure that's what you saw?" "Yes, absolutely. It was like some sort of magic or something! I dunno, it was all very hard to take in at once." He said nervously. "Hey buddy," he started again, "Can you like, _not_ tell anyone about this? I don't want to sound like I'm crazy." Overcoat placed a hand on Witness's shoulder. "All information about this will be given only to the authorities."

- Before we could listen further, we heard a patting sound behind us. We turned around sharply to find a police officer hitting a rolled up packet of papers in his hands impatiently. He looked me in the eye and said, "Don't you kids have anywhere _better_ to be right now?" He asked as if there was never an explosion behind us at all. He looked from me to the strange hairdo of Senjei, and back to me. "I…uh, yeah, yeah we do." I said, not wanting to start trouble, "C'mon Senjei, c'mon Keigo, I said as I grabbed Alicia's silk-soft arm and took off away from the site.

- Afterwards, Alicia and I conversed while Keigo taught Senjei how to play "Tag." "So you think it's really a Mamodo?" I asked Alicia. She nodded and said with much confidence, "Well, how can not be? It all makes sense don't it?" We compiled the evidence together, the eyewitness reports, the randomness of it all, what happened just 5 minutes ago. After this, I was forced to agree with Alicia on this one. "But what kind of power can cause this much destruction?" I was referring to the explosion-creating Mamodo. "Look's like we got a bit of high-tailed chasin' to do, don't we?" Alicia said with a smile that caused her cute freckled face to glow. I started to say something when someone ran down the road and yelled to the crowd of people and police, "There's been another explosion! Out on the other side of town! This time it was in a house!" The crowd got really quiet at this time, only murmurs of "Is she serious?" and "What did she say?" were emitting from the crowd.

- A policeman had confronted the woman and started to question her, and some people were getting into their cars to investigate. We were able to hitch a ride from one of my mom's friends who was there and was going to check out the other detonation. Thankfully she had a van so we all fit. Keigo sat enthusiastically in the front as Senjei crashed in the back. Alicia and I sat in the dividing seat. The ride up had been filled with the most excruciating suspense as Alicia and I quietly discussed what we would do if we found the culprit. Once again, through all the craziness, it was difficult to pinpoint the location of the disaster. Until finally…

- "Hello, yes, excuse me?" Said Sandy, Mom's friend, to a man walking along the sidewalk wearing a distraught/exhausted face. "You must know where it happened, right?" The man understood what she meant without her having to describe the scenario. The man inhaled in as if he were out of breath and said, "Yes, ma'am, it's on Stonehouse Ridge." **_THUNK_**, that was my stomach dropping to my feet, it was followed by another **_THUNK_**, as Alicia fathomed the idea as well. Number one: they really didn't go **_THUNK_**. That was a hyperbole/personification literary figure. Number two: _Stonehouse Ridge was the very same road Alicia and Craig's house stood._ We drove along silently, dreadfully listening to the howl and wails of the sirens that took the route Alicia would have taken home.

- Ok, and then I did something weird, well, weird for me to do, and don't make fun of me about it, I am completely aware that it has been only a week. But, I reached out and grabbed her hand, Alicia's, that is. I don't know why, I guess I was trying to be comforting or something, I don't know. It was one of those "Seemed like a good idea at the time" cases. I still don't know whether to feel stupid about it or not. But I just grabbed and held her hand, her lovely, silken hand. And just to add even more detail to the action, no, it wasn't like fingers intertwined and all that, it was just my hand wrapped around hers. I looked at her face for just a second, to see she had that same smirk/frown expression I wore just a chapter ago. I could tell that her heart rate was raising, her hand got warmer, and her breathing quickened. All we both could do was hope for the best.

- The crossroad was nearing, and Alicia's grip tightened. Harder and harder she squeezed my digits, and as we rounded the corner, and as Sandy gasped, "Oh my." Alicia fell into my shoulder and wept. She knew that the explosion had hit her house long before now, after we found out about Stonehouse Ridge. I, unfortunately, had no clue what to do at that point, so I did nothing. Alicia seemed to only need my shoulder, and I was doing a pretty good job at lending it to her.

- As we approached the wreckage, I was able to distinguish some major destruction details. Mainly, the front of the house was demolished. Where the door had been was now a pile of rubbish. The roof at the front of the house had fallen and pieces of wood had flown as far as the neighbor across the street's yard. There were many emergency vehicles lined up around the house. More Police cars, fire engines, and _Ambulances._ I italicize that because that was most likely where Craig was being kept. At the sight of this, I had to fight Alicia from jumping out of the moving car to see her brother, as she yelled his name helplessly. I told Sandy to stop the car, and she did very suddenly, at which point my hand was let go and Alicia unorthodoxly fell out of the car, got up and ran to the nearest ambulance. I fought my way through the groups of EMTs and Police Officers that blocked the white medical truck, and made my way to my second family ((yes I know it has only been a week, shuddap)). Craig was being thrown into the second ambulance, and miraculously, he was fine, with just a couple gashes and apparently a very painful nail embedded in his leg.

- Alicia was crying, which made my heart rise to my throat, I didn't like the seeing that. She was leaning against her bleeding brother who was sporting a pretty gnarly cut on the right side of his head and a nasty, bloody rag around his leg where the nail had entered. Craig was smiling, almost proud of what had happened, like how a kid would show off his scar to his awing friends. "It's alright Alicia, really it is. The doctors say I'll be in the hospital for about 4 days, if not less!" Despite her brother's attempts, Alicia was crying even harder, too lost for words. Craig patted her head repeating, "It's alright." He gave her a reassuring noogie, which calmed her down slightly, and told her he needed to go to the hospital now, and that we would ride in the other ambulance to the hospital to meet with him. "Go back now, go back to Blake, I'll see you in a bit ok? It's alright, truly, it is."

- The doors were closed, and Alicia reluctantly left her brother's side. She came over and, much to my delight, hugged me around the neck, and from there I led her to the Ambulance, by which we were transported to the infirmary.


End file.
